Orca! Orca! Orca!

Day three of our trip found us on a boat out in the middle of the deep blue sea on a tour of Resurrection Bay and the Kenai Fjords. We used a group called Kenai Fjords Tours. Would highly recommend them to anybody. The captain had been doing the tours for several years, and one would think that he was a Marine biologist or something before he became the boat captain. He was so extremely knowledgeable, and the love he had for his job was very evident in the way he delivered his narration to the folks on the boat.

We went and saw puffins, seals, even an Eagle. I got some pretty good pics. Then the swells in the water got to be a bit on the high side. I had to go and ask one of the crew members what the proper etiquette was for feeding the fishies. Thankfully, she had a "sick sack." I may have been the first to need such a device, but I certainly wasn't the last. And this, even after I had taken some seasickness medicine (the "nondrowsy" type). Bless the heart of somebody on the boat who had some "real" Dramamine. Went and sat down at my seat on the lower deck, and fell asleep for a while. Woke up when we were at the glaciers.

Oh, the glaciers. These things were magnificent! Blue like you've never seen before! And it had nothing to do with the sky being blue, according to our captain. The sound of the glacier calving and the ice falling into the water was awesome. And it was a bit unnerving to see all of the very large ice chunks - some as large as a school bus - was a bit unnerving (and it has been YEARS since I've seen "Titanic").

On the way back into Resurrection Bay we were extremely fortunate to not only run into a pod of Orcas, but a MegaPod. There were at least a couple of dozen Orcas out there. So many that the captain - who has seen Orcas in Resurrection Bay quite often - was very impressed with what we saw. I got several excellent photos, one of which I am going to enter into a photo contest. I'm not going to post that one here, but I'll post a couple others. Truly worth every moment of seasickness to see these magnificent beasts of the Deep Blue.

Angel's Rest?

We had to make a trip to the Harley Davidson shop in Anchorage. Their shirts were absolutely beautiful. Steve got a three-pack. This shop actually sold bikes - there are other shops that don't actually sell bikes or riding gear - only shirts and other merch. Went to Earthquake park and took some pictures. Geez, I love that camera. Went to downtown Anchorage and did some shopping. Got a couple of t-shirts and whatnot.

Headed to Seward. The drive was absolutely gorgeous. Will definitely have to post some pics to the blog to show off. Did I mention how awesome that camera is?

Got to the B&B in Seward, called Angel's Rest. We were a little bit scared of what we saw. In Steve's words, "Oh $hit!" when we saw the office. Looked like something out of a "B" horror movie, or something that Cousin Eddie from the National Lampoon "Vacation" series would have aspired to run. However, you can't always judge a B&B by it's outside. The whole section of town - about 3 miles outside of the downtown area - was pretty unsettling. There were more B&Bs that looked questionable.

However, the cabin itself was pretty cute on the inside, just not finished yet on the outside. We were told that we were supposed to have a cabin right on the water, and we paid $180 a night for the place - NOT on the water. They asked us to clean the room ourselves, but in a note left in the room, asked that we leave a generous tip for the foreign-exchange student housekeeper! Still, I have to say, the whole experience was okay, just more money than what it was worth.

Flying - always an adventure on American Airlines

Flight - 100% packed from Austin to Dallas. The flight left Austin on time, however.
Dallas to Anchorage, a whole nuther story.

A flight attendant was late to the airport for the flight (can't even begin to load a plane until all crew members are on board). That made us 1/2 hour late to board. Steve and I took our seats that we had confirmed the night before 20D and 20E. Flight was not only 100% booked, it was overbooked. Not a good thing for another couple to come up to the seats we are in and tell us that we are in THEIR seats! But, possession being 9/10 of the law (or so Steve says), we kept our seats while the other couple had to bring it up with the flight attendant.Flight itself was over 8 hours long. Sat next to a soldier who was home for leave from Iraq. Chatted with him just a bit, then fell asleep. Woke up to the offer of a $10 sandwich (hey - it included chips, woohoo!). Considering I got several military discounts on the way, I bought the soldier a sandwich for when he woke up. Only to find out that if he had been in uniform, the flight attendant would have given him one for free. But she gave me my money back.

Landed at 8:15 local time (supposed to be 7:30, but we didn't make the time up). Got to the hotel (Holiday Inn Express - Anchorage). Was decorated very nicely - they had a brown bear, a wolverine on display, and the furnishings were of the hand-carved variety. Very Alaskan!